Areas of expertise

I am interested in using genetic tools to address current issues in conservation science. I would like to know how human alternations of the environment—due to urbanization, habitat fragmentation, climate change or other factors—affects species, and what implication this has for the future. I believe we urgently need to understand the impact of human modifications for long-term population viability, and ultimately, the maintenance of biodiversity—and I think the ever-expanding genetic toolkit will help us do that.

Education

PhD,Louisiana State University 2012BA,University of Texas at Austin 2004

Positions

Science & Public Affairs Writer American Institute of Biological SciencesJune 01, 2013 - present I bring my scientific and technical expertise to bear on public policy topics. My purpose is to apply scientific knowledge by bridging the gap between scientists, the public and policymakers. I have engaged in many aspects of policy work, including attending briefings and committee hearings on Capitol Hill, helping to arrange briefings, participating in strategic meetings with NGOs, and writing for the bi-monthly AIBS Public Policy Report. My primary responsibilities are writing reports intended for policy-makers, publishing science articles intended for public consumption, and managing press releases and similar documents.

Research

Genetic variation can provide insight into mechanisms governing the distribution and structure of natural populations, and population responses to environmental change, which in turn can have important consequences for the maintenance of species diversity. At Louisiana State University, I studied genetic variation of a seed-dispersing bat, Artibeus lituratus (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae), in a heterogeneous landscape in South America, with the objective of understanding environmental and spatial forces responsible for the distribution and dynamics of populations.

I designed thousands of primers to amplify microsatellite loci for A. lituratus, for which no markers were previously available. I tested the performance of a subset of these microsatellites on A. lituratus and 6 related phyllostomid species. Advances in sequencing technology and bioinformatics make it possible to rapidly and affordably develop a large number of genetic markers. This is exciting because with many genetic markers available, researchers and land-managers can track population dynamics, both temporally and spatially, with a level of resolution never before possible.

I used these microsatellite markers to compare genetic structure in highly fragmented Alto Paraná Atlantic forest in eastern Paraguay to that in mostly contiguous forest in neighboring Misiones, Argentina. Further, I compared observed genetic structure across the fragmented landscape with levels of structure expected under different degrees of reduction in gene flow using realistic spatially explicit simulations. Results indicated that observed genetic structure was consistent with regular long-distance dispersal, high migration rates and a low effect of fragmentation. Moreover, simulation models and power tests allowed me to rule out the possibility that these results were simply a consequence of lack of statistical power.

Finally, I used multivariate statistics to determined unique and shared effects of forest configuration (at 5 spatial scales), environmental characteristics, and spatial factors on the distribution of genetic variation across the landscape. I processed Landsat 7 satellite imagery in ArcView to characterize forest remnants in the study area. I demonstrated that environmental factors and fragmentation at intermediate scales strongly accounted for variation in genetic diversity. In contrast, almost no variation in genetic structure was explained. Results were consistent with high levels of gene flow delaying reduction in population connectivity, and strong influence of environment and fragmentation on genetic diversity, potentially mediated via population size. These findings indicated the importance of accounting for effects of multiple demographic processes, and at multiple spatial scales. As a whole, for my research I developed and used high quality genetic data to study how populations respond to landscape alterations and natural environmental heterogeneity.

Additional research interests include ecological genomics -- there is some fascinating research coming out of the Whitehead lab at University of California at Davis, for example -- and many areas of conservation research and practice. I am also very interested in science communication, specifically science policy and scientific teaching.

Further information on bats, the Atlantic forest, and ecological research can be found at the Stevens lab at Louisiana State University (soon moving to Texas Tech).

Publications

Eve S. McCulloch. Harnessing the power of Big Data in biological research. 2013. BioScience. In press.

Eve S. McCulloch. Environmental and Landscape Determinants of Population Genetic Structure and Diversity of the Great Fruit-Eating Bat, Artibeus lituratus, in Atlantic Forest Remnants in South America. 2012. Louisiana State University Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection. Retrieved from http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-10292012-130643/.

Seminars & Presentations

Eve S. McCulloch. “Bridging the Gap: Communication Between Scientists and Policy-makers.” 93rd annual meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 14-18 June 2013.

Eve S. McCulloch. “Environmental and landscape determinants of population genetic structure and diversity of the great fruit-eating bat, Artibeus lituratus, in Atlantic forest remnants in South America”. Louisiana State University Dpt. of Biological Sciences: Division of Systematics, Ecology and Evolution. Departmental Exit Seminar. Baton Rouge, LA. 27 August 2012.